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Professional Players going Professional

Here, I mean professional players going on their own, without their National Associations.

While top CHN Tennis player, Li Na, was here in Melbourne for our 2011 Australian Tennis Open, she made this comment;

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GOING ALONE

............ Li, Peng, Zheng and Yan Zi, a two-time grand slam doubles champion, were granted leave by China's tennis association to organize their own tours and pick their coaches in a ground-breaking move in a country where most athletes remain yoked to a Soviet-style sports system.

Li, who wears a tattoo of a rose and a love heart on her chest, has played her best tennis since breaking from the system and enjoys the freedom to decide her own training after clashing with Chinese officials for a number of years.

"If you stay in the national team you don't need to take care of anything... They do everything for you," she said.

"But right now I have my team around with me... If I'm lazy, I want to rest, I can say, 'Okay, now stop - I want to rest'.

"Before if I (were) on the national team, I have to follow the team because I couldn't do many thing as one because we are the team."

Her husband has also helped take the pressure off by worrying about the finances while letting Li go wild with a credit card.

He also has the duty of watching out for her next opponent, either Maria Sharapova or Andrea Petkovic.

"I think this is my husband's job. I just lie down on the bed and enjoy watching TV, that's all," she said.

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Li Na seems so happy now that she is on her own.

Even Taufik Hidayat seems happier after he left PBSI. Now, Lee Chong Wei is thinking of following Taufik.

Will there be more 'professional' Badminton players wishing to go on their own, without their National Associations?

More about Li Na going on her own

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More about Li Na going on her own;

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Already the Chinese media has hailed her a sporting heroine and compared her to their biggest stars, NBA basketballer Yao Ming and Olympic gold medal hurdler Liu Xiang. And the Asian Tennis Federation has seized on Li's success as a boost for Asia's bid to host a grand slam tournament, raising the possibility of a fifth major......

Li's relationship with the Chinese tennis establishment has been occasionally strained. In 2002 she was so disillusioned by the Chinese tennis system she dropped out for two years to study journalism at university.

Li also led the successful push that allowed Chinese players to retain most of their prizemoney rather than hand it back to the state-run tennis federation.

Now the world No 7, she has become the best performed of what the Chinese call the "Golden Flowers", a generation of women tennis players......

When asked what drove her to victory in the semi-final over world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki, saving a match point en route, Li answered: "Prizemoney".

If she scores her 12th successive victory tonight, her winnings will grow by $2.2 million - which is two-thirds of her total career earnings to date.

Many sportspeople talk of how they live for their sport. But Li says that once she's off the court she wants to forget about tennis.

Jiang Shan, the man who talked her into returning to the sport in 2004, is now her husband and coach......

Her popularity in China is captured by leading online news site netease.com: "It's not an exaggeration to say that she has become a new name card of China's sports in the world. Li Na's success doesn't only mean that she has become a leading figure among tennis players in Asia, but also made her the first internationally influential female athlete (from China)."

Li's progress will also have tennis and television executives salivating. Cracking the world's biggest market has been tough and thankless work for the big-ticket sporting franchises.

State-controlled television has been reluctant to pay up for many major sports - a sore case in point is Britain's Premier League soccer - and there is only one dedicated sports channel......

I think all player should go Pro, I'm all in for Baddy to develop like Tennis

Hmmm... If LD break away from CBA since 2007... how much money would he earn by now? Taking his free time for advertisement and everything... I think that's a huge plus.

And we'll see less fixed matches...

on second thought... (If my memory is not playing tricks on me)

remember all england from a while back where Chen Hong walkover to Chen Jin? Was Chen Hong still with the National Squad? I remember there is talk about the coaches asking him to throw that game because of how much the country did for him or something...

KUALA LUMPUR: Gan Teik Chai went to the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) office yesterday to seek an answer. But all he got was a cold shoulder and still no clarification why he and partner Tan Bin Shen were dropped from the world championships in London from Aug 8-14.

“There was no official to explain why the decision was taken. Instead, I was given a letter saying our services were not required,” said a dejected Teik Chai. “They didn’t even have the courtesy to tell us why we were dropped. We only found out the decision through the media.”

Teik Chai and Bin Shen, who are sponsored by Apacs and KLRC, are currently ranked 16, making them eligible to join Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong in the championships. Instead, the BAM sidestepped them and named Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif and Hoon Thien How to play in London.

Teik Chai said that he was disappointed with the way BAM handled the matter.

“I am really hurt. They do not even respect us, the players,” said Teik Chai.

“I want to know why we were dropped. They say it was done in the best interests of the nation. But what does that mean?

“They named (Wong) Choong Hann for the world meet. I am not against him but he is 34 years old and on the verge of retiring. Why did the BAM not name a younger player to replace him? There is a double standard here.

“There is something wrong with their system. If the BAM really wanted their players to qualify, then they should have put in a more concerted effort and proper planning to help them qualify. Why take our place? We have worked very hard to win this ticket. It is not easy to train as independent players. We also need to find our own sponsors to fund all our trips.

“The BAM are not being fair to us. I am going to fight for my rights. They cannot just take our place like this,” added Teik Chai.

Teik Chai, however, conceded that the BAM have the final say on the participation of the local players in all Badminton World Federation (BWF) sanctioned tournaments.

“There must be proper communication. Tell us what is happening and there must be some form of compensation for omitting us from the world championships,” said Teik Chai.
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